Wellness: The Foundation for Successful Entrepreneurship
Your overall wellness is one of the greatest determining factors when it comes to your success as an entrepreneur. Taking care of your wellness means prioritizing your personal health: physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual. As a foundation for these building blocks of wellness, we can first focus on developing healthy habits around nutrition, hydration, movement, and sleep.
Curating a daily routine of healthy physical habits works to improve your wellness and lifestyle, helping you become more effective in your business! It’s never too late for an entrepreneurial glow-up! Here are the ideas we swear by, to help you get started.
February 27, 2023
Nutrition
Nutrition is one of the most important factors when it comes to your overall wellness. Your body is a complex machine that requires clean fuel to run effectively. Without it, you can expect breakdowns and failures. Block time in your schedule for meal planning, food prep and the meal breaks themselves. Healthy and filling meals will improve your overall productivity and energy throughout the day. Set your meal times as a part of your schedule and make sure you’re sticking to them.
What’s involved in meal planning? Meal planning can be done in a few simple steps and parts of the process can even be automated. Source recipes for foods you enjoy that help you meet your daily nutritional requirements and caloric intake. Plan out what you will have each day so you can create your shopping list. Consider meals that can be batched, prepped and frozen if freezer space allows and schedule one day each week to take care of food prep all at once. Keep fresh fruit and healthy snacks accessible so making the right choice is easy.
By creating a routine around nutrition, you are setting yourself up to be more productive and have peak energy throughout your work day. Going hungry or having a poor diet based on fast foods to save time should never be the answer as it will only result in distraction, fatigue, and potential illness.
Hydration
Staying hydrated can easily be overlooked when we get busy. Getting enough water throughout the day is a critical habit to keep as dehydration is a serious consequence of ignoring our water consumption.
Symptoms of dehydration include dizziness, fatigue, headaches or migraines, and even heart palpitations. Dehydration has a negative impact on our mental health and cognitive abilities. It can lead to feelings of anxiety and irritability and can impair our short-term memory and visual perception among other ill effects. Recovering from dehydration is a longer process than you may think, sometimes it can take a full 24 hours to recover. Dehydration prevents you from working with full productivity and a positive mindset, so it’s important to avoid being dehydrated altogether.
A good first step in improving your hydration is to integrate easy methods of doing so into your daily routine. For example, cutting back on beverages that dehydrate you including coffee and alcohol. Another good way to make sure you are drinking enough water is by filling up a reusable water bottle and having it by your side all day to sip from. Try a habit tracking chart to keep track of glasses or bottles of water during the day to make sure you hit your goals.
Staying hydrated on the go can be a challenge. Make it a priority to bring hydrating liquids with you when in transit or attending business meetings or conferences so that you are able to focus and keep your energy high without risking dehydration. Hydration supplements like Gatorade can help regulate your sugars and electrolytes.
Movement
Exercising every day can seem intimidating to a lot of people, especially if you don’t consider yourself to be athletic. However, “exercise” can be anything that fits your preferences as long as you’re getting up and moving. Consistency is key to building this healthy habit!
“While it’s typically easy to get started, many find it hard to stick to healthy new habits. When it comes to actually sticking to habits that support wellness goals, it’s best to start by consistently showing up for yourself. The secret to gaining mastery (having that activity actually become a habit) is consistency, not perfection. For me, that might mean committing to just two minutes on the yoga mat if I’m having a bad day, just so I can be consistent in my practice. It might not be a perfect yoga flow, but I kept my promise to myself, which is helping to solidify my habit and make it easier to show up again the next day.” – Moriah Bacus, Founder + Project Manager at Vibe High VA
Sitting at a desk all day contributes to a sedentary lifestyle, which is not good for your wellness or the success of your business. Living a sedentary lifestyle is one of the main causes of health issues such as; obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and feelings of depression or anxiety. Movement will make your body healthier and therefore, less prone to illness. It also helps you to feel happier, more awake, and more energetic, all of which help you in performing your best as a business owner!
You’ll be far more willing to stick to this new habit if it’s something you enjoy doing! For example, if you like being outside then try going for a walk around your neighbourhood or local park, and if you prefer to stay inside at home then maybe try out some online yoga or pilates tutorials.
What matters most when it comes to movement is that you are sticking to it and planning out a time in your schedule to do it, whether that’s before or after work or even on your lunch break. Getting exercise is crucial in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and feeling your best so that you can be successful in your business.
If you struggle with building this habit, look for an accountability partner who can help you meet your goals. Perhaps it’s someone to meet for your walk at lunch or someone you check in with daily once you’ve completed your movement for the day.
Sleep
It is common for entrepreneurs to neglect their sleep when they feel overwhelmed or caught up with running their businesses. However, without proper sleep, our minds and bodies cannot function at their peak and you’ll most likely start to feel the negative effects that come with it: headaches, muscle tiredness, reduced alertness, poor judgment, loss of motivation, and even periods of microsleep. If you are well-rested you’ll be able to make clear decisions for your business and come up with far more creative concepts that will benefit you in the long run.
Oftentimes, running a business also means being a leader. Having a proper sleep schedule will help you in the regulation of your emotions by minimizing anger or frustration and will allow you to keep a level head when making business decisions, in order to be a better leader for your team.
Sticking to a solid sleep schedule is setting yourself up for success and starting every day off on a healthy stride!
It’s impossible to give your business and clients your best if you aren’t taking care of yourself first. By living a healthy lifestyle and starting to improve yourself from the inside out, you are setting yourself up for an enjoyable and successful life as an entrepreneur.
Remember that you don’t need to go at it alone and there are many professionals and free resources out there to support you in building healthy new habits including nutritionists, trainers, coaches, and more! Hopefully, this blog helps to guide you in learning how to hold yourself accountable for your wellness while teaching you some steps to make yourself as successful as possible, starting with your physical and mental health!
We’re here to help you reach your goals. If you’re interested in getting some support when it comes to holding yourself accountable to day-to-day priorities, reach out to us to discuss project management and accountability support or book a complimentary consultation today.